ON MODELS FOR CROSS-WORLD PREDICATION

Я выдвигаю два методологических возражения против концепции кросс-мировой предикации, которую предлагает Е. Борисов: (1) Данный подход не учитывает того обстоятельства, что истинностный статус утверждений модального дискурса, как правило, интересует нас не в теоретико-модельном смысле, а в смысле истинности simpliciter. При этом данный подход не оставляет нам никакой возможности говорить о модальной эпистемологии и содержательном обосновании модальных утверждений. (2) Данный подход не учитывает роли воображения и ментального моделирования в том, что Е. Борисовым называется «интуитивным пониманием» рассматриваемых им утверждений. Учёт воображения и ментального моделирования, в свою очередь, переводит содержание подавляющего числа рассматриваемых Евгением примеров в разряд эпистемической модальности говорящего. При этом корректный переход от субъективной эпистемической модальности говорящего к любым типам объективных модальностей в рамках подхода Евгения попросту не может быть осуществлён, поскольку такой переход предполагает наличие внятной концепции модальной эпистемологии, чего Евгений нам не предлагает. Истинность любых рассматриваемых им примеров - это истинность на моделях говорящих, то есть на фреймах, в рамках которых говорящие полагают некоторые миры достижимыми из актуального. I raise two objections to E. Borisov’s methodology for building the theory of cross-world predication: (1) This approach does not take into account the fact that usually we are interested in truth values of modal claims not in the model-theoretical sense, but in the sense of truth simpliciter. However, this approach does not leave us any opportunity to talk about modal truths simpliciter, modal epistemology and substantive truth conditions for modal claims. (2) This approach does not take into account the role of imagination and mental modeling in what E. Borisov calls the ‘intuitive meaning’ of the analysed claims. However, taking into account imagination and mental modeling shows that the vast majority of the cases under consideration deal with epistemic and not alethic modality. In the absence of any modal epistemology we cannot simply postulate the validity of modal truths. Such postulation would be puzzling and unexplainable. And without such postulation of factuality, all the modalities we consider turn out epistemic.

Climate change in the context of whole-farming systems: opportunities for improved outreach

Climate change poses a challenge to farming systems worldwide. However, existing research suggests that farmers and those providing outreach may have different climate change perspectives, and there is little understanding of how farmers prioritize climate change compared with other aspects of their farming system. To compare how farmers and outreach professionals in northern New England consider climate change within the context of whole-farming systems, we conducted mental modeling interviews with 33 farmers and 16 outreach professionals. Despite being primed to consider climate during the interviews, only 24% of farmers and 25% of outreach professionals included climate in their mental models. Key differences arose in both group’s perceptions of weather: outreach professionals focused on connections between good weather and biophysical factors, while farmers drew additional connections to factors like quality of life and overall farm success. Social factors including community well-being, public education, and farm success were significantly more likely to be included (P < 0.05), and in some cases were more influential, in farmer models compared to outreach professional models. We conclude that farmer participants did not perceive climate to be a central factor of their farming systems, and valued human and social dimensions more highly than outreach professionals perceived. These factors may warrant special consideration in efforts to make outreach meaningful to local contexts, along with framing climate change within its broader relationship to other farming system aspects. Interdisciplinary teams may be helpful in developing outreach approaches that fully contextualize climate change within farmers’ complex whole-farm management perspectives.

Elements of Sensory-Emotional Experience as an Integral Part of Forming Visual Meanings: the Role of Conceptual Abilities

Background. This article analyzes the relationship between sensory-emotional experience inthe process of semantic description of vague visual figures,and the level of conceptual (categorical and generative) abilities. Objective. The objective of our study was, first, to show the differences in the degree and features of activation of elements of sensory-emotional experience in the process of constructing the meanings of vague visual figures; and, second, to show the relationship of these differences with the level of categorical and generative abilities. Design.We studied 102 older adolescents ages 15-16 years. The research program included the following methods: 1) "Description of vague figures" (E.Yu. Artemyeva's technique change,1980; 1999); 2) "Generalization of three words" (Kholodnaya, 2012; Kholodnaya et al., 2019); and 3) "Conceptual synthesis" (Kholodnaya, 2012; Kholodnaya et al., 2019). Results. Our results showed that generative abilities play the leading role in determining the degree of severity and diversity of different modalities in forming visual meanings, as compared with categorical abilities. The transition simulation hypothesis explains the results. However, the embodied character of mental modeling (simulation) is not determined “bottom-up” by the individual’s bodily state or the activity of corresponding brain zones. On the contrary, conceptual (namely, generative) structures determine the form of the conceptual representations from the "top down." Conclusion. Generative abilities represent the highest level of organization of personal conceptual experience, which acquires a multimodal quality, due to the integral nature of conceptual (generative) structures.

Revisiting computer modeling

Introduction. Modeling serves as a methodological basis for modern science and a tool for cognitive activity. It can be considered as a thinking activity mediated and optimized through information models. In this case, logical operations of cognition and simulation techniques are applied to the information. Materials and Methods. The scientific research results on how knowledge is formed, stored and processed in a person's memory, how they interact with information representations are studied and summarized. Information models used in various subject domains are analyzed. The provisions on rational ways of presenting information under modeling are formulated, and computer tools for constructing such representations are indicated. Results. Methods and techniques for visualizing information on the object under study are specified. Software tools and services providing visualizations and research modeling procedures are given. Discussion and Conclusions. The results obtained can be used to optimize modeling procedures. Images, structures, relationships and connections of the object under study are visualized in special programs with the help of the described methods and techniques. They, in turn, mediate the process of mental modeling and broaden the basis for its implementation.

Highlights of the educational process in primary school

The education of younger schoolchildren is a responsible job, since younger schoolchildren form character traits, lay the foundations of knowledge, beliefs, worldview, moral guidelines. Therefore, education issues require close consideration. Theoretical research methods were used in the work: abstraction, that is, the process of education in the school was considered in isolation from family education and other factors that actually affect the younger student; and the method of mental modeling is to mentally simulate the situation when the educational process proceeded according to one scenario, for example, the opinion of the teacher was expressed without the student’s readiness to perceive the information according to another scenario, when the teacher took into account the characteristics of the child and the environment. The result of the research was the allocation in a broad topic of school education of several key points that teachers should pay attention to.